NAVIGATION:

21 May 2013

Vidunder "Vidunder" Review

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Sweden's Crusher Records are quickly becoming my first and last stop when it comes to retro seventies style rock, with fine releases by Dean Allen Foyd and Spiders under their belt.
You can now add Vidunder's self titled debut to that impressive list, an excellent example of blues based 70s style occult rock which will make fans of Witchcraft, Graveyard and Kadavar very, very happy indeed.
Granted there's a lot of this stuff around at the moment, but it's rare for a "revival" scene to offer up as many gems as the recent 70s occult revival has - I'd rate Witchcraft's albums especially as highly as the albums they're inspired by.
Which brings me to Vidunder's debut, which may not scale the heights of Witchcraft's second album "Firewood", but in this listener's opinion trumps their debut hands down.
There's all sorts of tags you can associate with this sort of stuff ; stoner rock, proto-doom etc, but all conjure images of a more hamfisted approach than you'll find evidence of here.
Vidunder display a level of instrumental finesse that's unusual for occult rock, recalling the more challenging time signatures of the likes of Captain Beyond or Black Widow just as readily as the diabolical riffery of Black Sabbath.
It helps too that they tone back the distortion and sound like they excusively use vintage gear, giving this a mysterious, sinister air not to mention the authentic period feel of a rediscovered late sixties Vertigo gem.
Martin Prim's guitar work is the highlight here for me - key for a three piece, he has an innate understanding of when to be riffy and when to play in a more textural fashion - not to mention some surprisingly subtle lead work.

2 comments:

Nathan, are you aware of Canadian occult rockers Blood Ceremony? If not, check 'em out! I can totally vouch for their debut and their second album, Living With the Ancients, is even better. They have a third one coming out about now. They are fronted by a beautiful young woman named Alia O-Brien, who contributes lead vocals, organ and flute over a traditional heavy trio backdrop. They draw on 70s proto and some English folk. https://www.facebook.com/bloodceremonyrock